


Broken Shards

by TariSilmarwen



Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beating, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Electrocution, Ezra Bridger Gets a Hug, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Flashbacks, Force Choking (Star Wars), Gen, Heat Stroke, Hurt, Hurt Ezra Bridger, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rescue, Restraints, Soft Obi-Wan Kenobi, Strangulation, Whump, Whumptober 2020, maul is still The Worst, technically part of the mirrorverse but can be read separately
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27170962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TariSilmarwen/pseuds/TariSilmarwen
Summary: Alternate ending to "Shatterpoint".  What if Ezradidn'twin his freedom from Maul?
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Darth Maul, Ezra Bridger & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Maul
Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954951
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75





	Broken Shards

**Author's Note:**

> I promised my readers an alternate "Shatterpoint" ending for Whumptober and here she be! Because apparently my brain just couldn't stop itself from going, "Okay but what if I made it... _worse?_ "
> 
> Reading my previous fic "Shatterpoint" is not a requirement for reading this one, though it does provide some context.
> 
> Prompts used were **No. 5 Where Do You Think You're Going?: Failed Escape** , **No. 11 Psych 101: Defiance/Struggling/Crying** , and **No. 14 Is Something Burning?: Heat Exhaustion**
> 
> Enjoy!

His tranquil morning was interrupted by a disturbance in the Force.

The steady stream he was pouring into his teacup faltered, and Obi-Wan lifted his head a bit, tuning in to the source of the strange premonition.

He frowned when he recognized its pattern, carefully setting the teapot back down on the small counter. A burning presence full of anger, disturbing and familiar. The very same one he had sensed intruding upon his solitude three months earlier.

Obi-Wan tensed for a moment, closing his eyes, sinking into the calm of the Force and warily feeling out for the Dark Side presence, careful to guard and shield his own mind from the rippling echos.

A tentative brush and then Obi-Wan wanted to sigh in disappointment.

There was no doubt. Maul had returned. Again.

But something was different this time. The boiling rage was... divided. No longer single-mindedly focused. Maul was distracted. And there was a shadow-presence with him, quivering and frightened. Distress echoed out from the second presence, a grating tingle of discord in the Force.

Obi-Wan's hands gripped the edge of the counter in quiet horror, at once dismayed for the young Force Sensitive he could sense alongside his old enemy.

"Oh Maul..." he whispered. "What have you _done?_ "

-SWR-

A burning orange haze slowly filled the viewport.

Reflected light from the suns hitting the Tatooine sands festered in his yellow eyes. Maul brought the gauntlet in for a gradual descent towards the surface, directing his craft near to where he had initially abandoned his search for Kenobi.

He paid little attention to the reason for his detour, the boy seated in the chair next to him, hands bound in his lap, heavy metal collar latched around his neck, stubbornly silent.

Maul found an open stretch of sand near a craggly ridgeline and leveled out, setting the gauntlet down. The struts popped and hissed as the weight of the ship came to rest on them.

He kept his hands curled tight around the steering yoke for a moment, seething, flitting through the events that had led to this moment.

-SWR-

_The boy's challenge hung in the air between them, and Maul almost lost himself in irrational rage before he stopped himself and held back, remembering what was at stake._

_"I do not have_ _**time** _ _for this," he growled, raising his hand instead of rising to Ezra's bait._

_Ezra pulled off the ground, invisible pressure closing around his throat, choking him. He slashed out with his lightsaber, his legs kicking._

_Maul sidestepped the wild blow, squeezing tighter, crushing Ezra's neck until he dropped his saber, both hands clawing up at his collar. The boy rasped weakly, straining for breath._

_He kept up the pressure until Ezra's eyes dulled and his struggling weakened. Then slammed him hard against the side of the tunnel and dropped him._

_The boy collapsed, insensate, crumpling into a heap._

_Maul shoved his hand into his rucksack, yanking out the shock collar and clapping it at once around Ezra's neck._

-SWR-

Maul took a steely breath to control himself, easing his hands off the yoke. He got to his feet stiffly, finishing the shutdown sequence. The gauntlet's hum droned into silence.

Then he turned to his wayward apprentice.

Ezra turned his head away as soon as he felt Maul's gaze, the purpling bruise from where Maul had viciously struck him the moment he was awake displaying prominently on his cheek. Maul knelt down and undid the binders tethering Ezra's ankles. The boy continued to say nothing, staring down at his bound hands angrily.

Rising to his feet, Maul clipped the cuffs to his belt, for later use.

Ezra glared up at him, his eyes still red and puffy from unshed tears, full of impotent angry defiance. Maul knew it was but a weak shadow—the boy had been quietly crying the whole way there.

The display of rebellion still angered him though, and he seized his apprentice roughly by the arm, dragging him out of the seat.

"Get up," he growled sharply.

Ezra stumbled a moment before his feet steadied, flinching at the harsh treatment.

Maul shoved him unceremoniously towards the back of the ship. Hot air blasted into the hallway as the ramp lowered, the morning already sticky and uncomfortable. Closing a tight hand around Ezra's right wrist, Maul led him out into the desert air, practically dragging him.

He scanned the horizon for a moment, yellow eyes peering out across the shimmering salt flats, drifting over the jagged edges of the ridgeline. Ezra's hand squirmed a little in his unforgiving grip, his wrist twisting, but Maul gave no thought to it, his eyes closing, straining out with his senses for the spot of cool blue tranquility in the eddies of the Force that was Kenobi's hateful familiar signature.

He felt out and out, pushing his mind farther and farther, until he detected something that seemed promising.

Opening his eyes, he shifted back around to face his apprentice, who gave another flinch of fearful apprehension, curling into himself.

Expression narrowing, Maul dug his nails into Erza's arm, pulling out the trigger for the shock collar and holding it very pointedly in front of the boy's eyes.

"If you attempt to run," he threatened, "I _will_ use this."

"Where would I _go?_ " Ezra asked, miserably, his voice lined with lead. Maul could see the edges of his eyes glistening.

Maul gave a huffing sniff of satisfaction. At least the boy knew his place.

He let go of Ezra's wrist and gave a hard shove to the boy's shoulder, pushing him towards the flat sands.

"Walk," he ordered.

Ezra obeyed silently, trudging forward in the direction he was commanded.

Maul followed a few paces behind him, eyes fixed on him for any small sign of rebellion, until the gauntlet was far behind them out of reach.

The suns slowly rose higher, climbing into the sky.

-SWR-

Ezra was fairly certain his head was not supposed to be pounding like it was. There was a dull ache and pressure, pinching his skull, throbbing slightly with every step he took.

The bridges of his feet hurt too, and his knees, and his hips... every part of his legs really.

They had walked for hours. Both suns were now high in the sky, turning the blue almost white from their heat, searing and unbearable. It burned down on his head, his neck, his shoulders, making him blister, getting under his collar and gathering as clammy sweat. Droplets of it trickled down his brow and temples. His hair stuck to his forehead, slick and grimy, sand particles catching in it and dripping down with his sweat to sting his blinking, dazed eyes.

His throat... _burned._ Thirst scratched at him, worsening with every breath. He panted softly as he struggled to keep up with Maul's relentless pace, open-mouthed, dry air wheezing and rasping through his lips, cracking them, turning his tongue to cotton.

The binders pinched around his wrists with every step. Maul had clamped them too tight—every movement dug into his skin, bruising him—but he dared not ask for them to be loosened, or for them to stop, or even for water. He knew he wouldn't be granted any mercy.

Maul had stopped paying attention to him long ago, anyway, preoccupied with staring out at the horizon, stalking this way and that, leading the way forward, his lightsaber-cane thumping the ground at regular intervals. His back was to Ezra, the boy trailing several steps behind the man as they trekked through the unforgiving desert, but Ezra had no thoughts of escape.

He knew he wouldn't get far.

Ezra held back his despair, reaching up and smearing the fabric of his sleeves across his face, to try and wipe the sweat and dirt and tears out of his eyes.

Maul was muttering now, his voice a low, incomprehensible drone on Ezra's ears. Ezra pulled his head up, swallowing dryly, looking forward.

The desert stretched out for miles, seemingly endless, a baking wasteland of sand and heat and thirst.

Ezra's eyes blurred as he stared at it. He shook his head furiously, trying to keep his thoughts together. They seemed to drift away from him like effervescent mist, disappearing with the trickling sand that blew across his face on the faint wind.

On and on they traveled. The heat grew sweltering. Ezra's shirt was drenched with sweat, sticking uncomfortably to him. Sand got into every orifice, every wrinkle of his clothes, a persistent itchy feeling all around him. His throat panged from thirst. His drooped head tilted, dizzily, the sand dunes rolling under his feet. Maul was a black smudge in his vision ahead, a vague rippling of focus and anger that Ezra could feel in his rapidly declining connection to the Force.

His breaths sounded loud in his own ears. His parched throat tingled and his head danced lightly.

He didn't realize he was falling until his vision filled with the sight of sand coming towards his face.

He crumpled, hitting the soft ground and then struggling up, a frantic sense of danger inside him, jolting through his limbs and making him hyper-aware of Maul's presence ahead.

Ezra pushed upright with his bound hands, gasping heavily. His legs felt like jelly and would not obey him. Ezra blinked his eyes clear, his throat pinching slightly as he saw that Maul had stopped, was standing there glaring back at him, yellow eyes burning out from under his hood.

"I'm—I'm sorry!" he gasped, his eyes welling up. He tried and failed to shift his legs, but they were paralyzed with exhaustion, unresponsive. "I... I can't..."

A sob escaped his mouth before he could stop it.

The heat and the hopelessness and his fatigue collided, his emotions in turmoil. His voice strained through sand and scratching thirst, weak, trembling.

"Pl—Please..." he begged, not even sure what he was asking for, just knowing he couldn't go any further, not unless Maul forced him, threatened him, something.

Maul did neither of those things, stalking back towards him, metal feet kicking up sand. Ezra cowered, whimpering, squeezing his eyes closed in fear as Maul knelt down by him. His hair was seized, his head yanked back, but then Ezra gasped in relief as the spout for the water canteen was put to his lips and trickling cool relief poured into his mouth.

He reached up with his bound hands, grabbing the sides of the canteen, and greedily took several long gulps before it was pulled away. He faltered, wobbling on his knees, tearing up again as Maul withdrew the canteen and stowed it away.

Maul was muttering again, his words rambling and strange.

"No no no, we cannot stop here," he was saying, turning around and pacing, cane scratching the dirt. "We are not close enough, we are not _close._ " A mad light was in his eyes and Ezra shrank back, heart trembling, prickles of alarm moving through him as Maul droned on.

The ex-Sith curled his hands tighter around his lightsaber.

"Hhhh, he is holding back, holding back away from us," he said. Notes of fury entered his voice. "Typical _coward_. We must draw him out. Yes. Draw him out. He will come."

Ezra wondered idly if the heat had gotten to Maul as well. The yellow eyes darted about, wild, manic. They looked everywhere but at Ezra, keening off into the distance, the man's lips curling into a snarl.

"Draw him out, draw him out... _Kenobi_..." There was pure venom in the way he growled the name. "You will not evade me, not this time! You think I won't do it?" he challenged towards the empty air.

A strange sort of calm seemed to settle over Maul. He stopped pacing, his whole demeanor stilling. For several moments he did nothing but breathe.

He looked back at Ezra, almost apologetic, his eyes no longer wild, but fully present, and full of regret.

Ezra's heart crept into his throat.

"I am... sorry, apprentice," Maul said.

Ezra's throat tightened with tingling fear and foreboding. A foreboding that sharpened as Maul lifted the control for the collar.

His heart gave a stuttering flash of terror in the split-second before he was overtaken with searing pain, the collar sending rippling waves of agonizing energy all across his body.

He shrieked, his cries rending up towards the unforgiving sky. The twin suns blazed down on him as he collapsed, writhing, to the ragged sand.

Tears of pain streamed freely down his face as he screamed, his whole body rending apart, hopelessness choking him because no one but Maul could hear him out here in this isolated desert, no one was coming to help him, no one could stop this terror and pain he felt.

He was _alone_.

-SWR-

Obi-Wan did not have much cause to _hurry_ here on Tatooine, most days spent in quiet meditation and even his occasional trips into town usually uneventful and unremarkable.

But the urgency with which the Force called him now spurned him with a sense of _haste_.

He kicked at the flank of his eopie, urging it into a quicker trot. The dewback was too slow for this matter, not when the awful blaring of someone in pain was raging on him, pounding on his mind through the Force, demanding his attention.

The Jedi master cursed Maul for landing so far out of reach. It had been by design, of course, Obi-Wan had deliberately lured him away from all settlements and dwellings in the area including his own the last time, and without a clear sense of where else to start it was only natural Maul picked up the search where he'd left off.

But now it meant the boy he was tormenting would be at his mercy for a long time, unless Obi-Wan could get there faster, unless he could somehow make Maul—

He pulled the eopie up short a moment, a thought coming to him. The beast snorted in discontent, annoyed at having been urged up and then stopped in quick succession, but Obi-Wan was already deep in the folds of the Force, hand and mind outstretched, reaching across the distance, connecting as best he could with the dark mind of the ex-Sith, calling out a frantic command.

_Stop._

His breath stilled for a moment as he concentrated, sending the impression heavily towards the far-off cold presence.

A tick or two passed. Then...

Obi-Wan exhaled in relief as the stinging distress in the Force finally faded. The pain projections dimmed, and he thought he could feel a vague response from Maul, a silent acknowledgement.

Dropping his hand, Obi-Wan felt almost as haggard as if he'd run a race on too much caf and too little sleep.

He nudged the eopie back up to speed again.

 _I'm coming,_ he promised inside his thoughts. _Please hold on._

-SWR-

The fire popped and crackled warmly in the chilly night air. Maul stirred the coals with a stick, prodding idly, firelight dancing in his eyes and making eerie shadows on his face. He sat hunched, shoulders tucked forward, hood low over his brow, patiently waiting.

A little bit to the side sat Ezra, sniffling softly, perched on one of the large rocks that framed the firepit. His ankles were bound again, and a dirty rag was tied in his mouth. Clear streaks ran down his dirt-covered cheeks from his tears, long since dry and spent by now, and he stared at his lap morosely, his eyes dull and deadened.

His wrists were rubbed raw from the binders, dried blood crusting on the hems of his gloves. He tried to hold back the shuddering trembles that passed through his body. The cold bit at his back, and he wished he could scoot closer to the fire, but Maul had warned him not to move, and so he hadn't.

He hated how defeated a few short hours out in the sun had made him.

Maul alerted to something, his head suddenly jerking up, tensing.

Ezra's heart stuttered a moment, looking up, watching him.

The Zabrak stared out past the circle of firelight for a long moment, then popped up on his metal feet, snarling, shouting to the open air.

"I know you're there, Kenobi!" he bellowed, his words harsh and startling after the long silence. The man's hands were twitching, curling into fists. His eyes strained this way and that through the darkness. "Come out of hiding!"

Ezra felt his breath catch, felt a faint twinge of... hope? passing through his chest.

There was silence as a response to Maul's angry challenge for a moment. Then, quiet footsteps sounded in the sand. A soft shape emerged from the shadows outside the firelight, a shape that resolved into the figure of a man, old and hooded and worn, graying and tired-looking, but with an edge of sharp steel in his eyes.

He stepped quietly forward, hands folded inside the sleeves of a Jedi robe. There was a serenity about him, like a calm pond, and he seemed almost to glow in the Force, to Ezra's senses.

"I'm here, Maul," he said, quietly.

Maul shivered with a trembling relief, leaning back on one leg.

"Ahh..." he sighed, satisfaction ringing through his breathless exhale. There was a feverish excitement in Maul's yellow eyes as his whole body relaxed, uncoiling from its tightly-held tension. "I knew you wouldn't hesitate." His expression twitched with unidentifiable emotion. "You are still, after all these years, too _soft._ "

The Jedi master—for who else could it have been—had no reaction to the barb. His soft blue eyes flicked towards Ezra, taking in the boy's rough state, the purse of his frown deepening slightly.

Obi-Wan returned his gaze to Maul, his tone diplomatic and calm.

"Let the boy go, Maul," he asked. "He has nothing to do with our quarrel."

Incensed, Maul mashed the control to the shock collar, making Ezra seize up behind him. The boy cried out at the jolt of energy passing through him before toppling off the rock with a muffled cry.

Obi-Wan flinched.

" _He_ is not your concern!" Maul snapped, demanding the Jedi's full attention with his fuming demeanor and fury.

"He is not part of this," Obi-Wan insisted gently. "Let him go."

"He _is,_ " Maul repeated. A scoffing glance was paid towards the boy, who was sobbing quietly as he picked himself up from the dirt. "My apprentice requires some... _convincing_ ," he went on, returning his gaze to his old foe, "in order to see clearly. I intend to rip the blinders off his eyes." The yellow Sith eyes narrowed, full of hatred. "And I will start by killing you," Maul snarled.

Obi-Wan listened calmly to the threat, watching Ezra behind him. The young Jedi's eyes were tormented as they looked up at him, pleading with Obi-Wan to go yet begging him to stay.

It wasn't a question that Obi-Wan wasn't leaving him, only a question of how much force he would have to use against Maul.

"What do you hope to accomplish here?" he asked the man, returning his attention to him. He spoke evenly, with a neutral, unjudgemental tone. "Killing me will not undo everything that's happened to you." He nodded slightly towards Ezra. "And it will not win that boy's loyalty."

Maul scowled at that, kicking the dirt with his foot, fists tightening. "I don't need his loyalty. Not yet," he said. "Merely his obedience."

Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. "Hurting him will not gain you what you seek, Maul," he said. "The cup you are trying to fill has no bottom." His face softened with compassion, and his voice dropped even lower. "It is time to let it go."

Silence reigned for a moment, and then Maul practically _boiled_ in fury, lightsaber whipping out.

"Let _go?!_ " he bellowed in outrage.

The twin blades ignited sharply, glowing in the blue moonlight.

"I am only alive because I _clung_ to my hatred for you!" he shouted. Ezra shrank back away from him, terrified, but Maul's full concentration was on Obi-Wan, face hot and flushed, eyes blazing. "My anger sustained me! I survived because of the Dark!"

He pointed one of the blades towards the old Jedi, fingers mashing around the lightsaber hilt.

"And now I will prove to you how much _stronger_ it is," he hissed. The aside seemed partially meant for Ezra, now with his back pressed up against the rocks, watching with eyes wide in fear. Maul spat his words out, reaching up and stabbing in sharp gestures. "I don't need your pity! I don't need your compassion!" He was more terrifying than Ezra had ever seen as he snarled, "I only need you to _die._ "

He lunged, and Ezra flinched, but a blue blade flashed out to meet the red one, deflecting the violent strike with elegant precision.

Maul stumbled back a bit, metal feet scuffing in the sand.

Obi-Wan stood holding his saber in ready position as if the effort had cost him nothing.

"Let him go," he repeated again. His face was set firmly, eyes narrow. It was no longer a request, but a command.

"He is _mine,_ " Maul growled, resuming his stance. "I will _kill_ him before I let you take him!" he promised.

Ezra stiffened at that, giving a choked gasp, freezing in place. Incoherent terror rang through his thoughts and he tried to reassure himself that Maul hadn't meant it, he'd said he would never—

He watched as if through a far away window as Obi-Wan leveled a severe gaze on Maul and said simply:

"You will not."

Maul shrieked and heaved himself forward and the red and blue blades clashed.

Once.

Twice.

Ezra shook himself out of his paralyzed state, straining down for the cuffs on his ankles. He couldn't just _sit there_ , he had to _do_ something, escape, help, anything but wait for Maul to cut Obi-Wan down and turn attentions back to him.

Three times the blades struck.

His hands couldn't angle themselves the way Ezra needed in the pinching binders. His fingers fumbled at the joint between the metal coils around his feet, searching frantically for the release mechanism. He curled his legs tighter for better access.

Four times.

Ezra gave up on the cuffs for a moment, pushing against the rock with his elbows, straightening. He reached out with shaking hands, calling upon the Force.

Maul felt the weak tug on his wrist, trying to hold him back, and shoved back on the fifth exchange of blows, whipping around towards Ezra and furiously crushing the trigger for the collar.

Electricity snapped through him and he squeezed up in pain, hands drawing back and curling stiffly, grimacing, biting down hard on the rag as phantom aftershocks coursed through him and memories pounded on his head.

 _Tearing pain moving through him, the jolts making him snap back against the table_. _Crackling and buzzing in his ears constantly, the drone of the IT-O_ —

Ezra gasped out of it, opening his eyes wide to see Maul coiling up again, striking towards Obi-Wan.

This was it, he thought in despair. Maul was too quick. There was no way to block—

The blue blade slashed down in a decisive sixth slash, almost faster than Ezra could see.

Everything... stopped.

Maul had frozen, eyes fixed wide in shock. The saber dropped out of his hands, clumping onto the ground. His arms wrapped around his middle, and now Ezra could see the faint smoke rising from Maul's front, smell the sizzling of burning flesh.

Obi-Wan stood there, grim-faced, his saber still extended at the end of his sweep.

Time unfroze. Maul dropped to his knees, shock still etched across his face. He toppled, reaching back one last time for Ezra, desperation in his eyes.

Then he was face-down on the sandy earth and utterly still.

Ezra's breath shuddered, releasing shakily. Some unseen tether and tension around him had snapped, and Ezra realized his Force bond with Maul was gone. He marveled up at Obi-Wan, relief beginning to flood through him.

The Jedi master gave a long sigh as he straightened up. The blue blade extinguished; he clipped it with tired motions to his belt as he stepped around Maul's body and walked to Ezra.

He knelt down by the boy and gently pulled the rag out of his mouth.

Ezra inhaled with a soft gasp, working the ache out of his jaw for a moment. He was still wrapping his head around the fact that Maul was dead. It was over. His head... tingled with the knowledge.

"Thank you..." he whispered thinly.

Obi-Wan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Rest easy, my boy," he told Ezra. "It's finished." He fiddled with the locking mechanism on the binders on Ezra's wrists, finding the release. Once they fell, he unlocked the shock collar, revealing burns on the boy's neck. Obi-Wan sobered at seeing them. "I am truly sorry you got mixed up in my business with Maul," he said.

"Wasn't your fault," Ezra mumbled, rubbing his wrists gingerly as Obi-Wan moved to the binders on his ankles. "He came after me on his own, kidnapped me." He let out a soft sigh, his eyes dropping. "He's wanted me for his apprentice for a long time. Wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Hm. Seems consistent with his character," Obi-Wan remarked.

The ankle binds snapped open.

Obi-Wan looked up at Ezra, expression full of soft regret.

"I am sorry, nonetheless," he said again.

Ezra sat for a moment, emotions trembling, head feeling slightly numb and confused.

Everything seemed to catch up with him all at once and he choked up, flinging himself into Obi-Wan's arms with a cry.

Obi-Wan patiently let the boy cling to him, patting his back softly.

"It's all right, lad," he whispered. "It's all right. Just breathe."

Ezra made a valiant effort, shaking, his chest and shoulders shuddering as he pressed closer into Obi-Wan's robes.

Obi-Wan wrapped calm around the boy, soothing him through the Force. Ezra's hiccuping grew quieter and quieter until he was just breathing softly against Obi-Wan's chest.

The Jedi master smiled. He nudged Ezra to let go, telling him gently, "Let's get you home."

-SWR-

They talked long into the morning, as they rode back on the eopie, Ezra sitting behind and regaling Obi-Wan with the full sordid tale of how Maul had first starting coming after him, the holocrons, Dathomir, the _Chimaera_ , and all that had happened after it. Obi-Wan listened and nodded patiently, letting the boy unload everything upon his ears.

He gave a somber smile as Ezra described his vision on Ilum, the Jedi master who had knighted him.

"Ah. Master Windu," he said fondly.

Ezra straightened a bit.

"You know him?"

"I did," Obi-Wan said. "He was Grandmaster of the Order, a wise and powerful Jedi." His eyes turned distant and sad. "And a dear friend."

Ezra's face fell, his eyes dropping as his head turned down, watching the sand pass under the eopie's hooves for a long moment.

"I wish I could have seen it," he said quietly. "The Temple."

Obi-Wan was quiet for a while, contemplative.

"Perhaps, one day, you will see it restored," he said. "When this fight is over."

"Yeah..." Ezra mumbled, tightening arms around Obi-Wan's waist.

He didn't speak further, spending the rest of the ride in silence.

It took a bit boosting the transmitter in his hovel to have a strong enough signal, but soon enough the voices of the _Ghost_ crew were stumbling over each other, frantically asking after Ezra's condition. Obi-Wan let the boy do all the talking, quietly fixing up another pot of tea. Ezra kept his answers short and vague—he was safe, Maul was dead, he was on Tatooine and ready to come home. Obi-Wan set a plain porcelain cup by Ezra's elbow, and set out again on his mount.

He returned to the scene of the confrontation and gave Maul what burial he could.

When he got back to the hovel, Ezra was asleep, curled up in Obi-Wan's blankets on his bed, the porcelain cup empty on the table. Obi-Wan let him rest, finding a spot to sit and meditate until the morning, and when the rose-colored sunlight began to peek over the horizon and the freighter circled in for a landing, he remained by Ezra's side until the very end.

He hung back and watched the boy run towards the open ramp, figures stumbling out to meet him, embracing him on all sides with tears and tumultuous emotion.

Peace rang out through the Force, and Obi-Wan took a small measure of satisfaction in helping to restore the boy to his family.

He watched and wished Ezra well as they guided him towards the ship, sending a quiet admonition his way with his thoughts.

_May the Force be with you._

Both Jedi turned their heads back to glance curiously at him.

Obi-Wan merely put up his hood and turned around to resume his own watchful vigil, fading slowly into the Tatooine sands.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes! Kind of a tradition when it comes to this series. Anyway...
> 
> 1\. Originally when I first conceived this alternate ending, I think it had a much bleaker and darker tone, and was a bit more on the bittersweet ending side of things. I sort of had the thought that maybe this would be the one Ezra doesn't recover from, that this is what would wind up breaking him. But in the end I really just... didn't have it it me to write it that way. It felt a bit like a betrayal of the victory I wrote for him in "Shatterpoint" and... I'll be honest I was feeling really lousy about life this whole past week while I was writing it and didn't want my headspace full of more misery. So there have been some definite changes from the original concept
> 
> 2\. Number one, Ezra gets more hugs and comfort. Sue me, I needed Soft Obi-Wan.
> 
> 3\. I didn't like how passive Ezra was in the first outline, so I tweaked it to try and give him a little bit more agency. He still doesn't get to use Shatterpoint, but at least he distracts Maul and makes him sloppy.
> 
> 4\. I toned down Maul's cruelty some, mainly just excised a bit where he dumps the water out in front of Ezra and changed it to him actually giving it to him.
> 
> 5\. The ride back to Obi-Wan's home was a section that I just kind of added as I was writing, originally we just skipped ahead straight to the reunion. Felt like writing some Ezra-Obi-Wan bonding.
> 
> And, well, there you have it. Probably not as devastating as I had originally intended it to be (it was _heavy_ on the angst, trust me) but like I said, my brain has been too sad lately and I wanted to do hurt/comfort instead of all angst. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Until next time dear readers!


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